A brief but useful reminder to be kind.
Triplets are reminded of a valuable lesson when a new student joins their class in Cotty and Ipsan’s picture book.
Nina, Nancy, and NoNo may be triplets, but they’re certainly not all the same. One day, the sisters, who all have pale skin, hop on the bus to their first grade classroom, excited at the prospect of a new student joining their cohort. NoNo is apprehensive, so when the teacher, Mrs. Carver, introduces the recent arrival, Mia, she isn’t very willing to accept her. Several of the boys immediately bully Mia about her glasses, and NoNo joins in. After Mrs. Carver demands that the class apologize, Nina is the only sister—and, in fact, the only student—to help Mia safely to her seat. The triplets tell their parents about the incident at their family dinner, prompting their father to remind them of an important lesson: “That’s right, Treat Everyone Kindly, no matter who they are or what they look like.” The authors and illustrator hide the letters TEK on each page and ask their readers to find them; the “I Spy” game may excite a preschool audience once they realize the letters stand for “Treat Everyone Kindly.” Rekers’ mostly full-bleed illustrations immerse readers in the triplets’ world, using calm colors to evoke a mood of contemplation.
A brief but useful reminder to be kind.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9798990049611
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Three Cookies Press
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
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